Leaving to Avoid Police Control

“Exodus” at Incheon International Airport: Many people on Korean Air’s KE6835 passenger plane (seating capacity of 150), which departed from Incheon Airport to Yanji, China at noon on November 13, were the subjects of deportation. Usually the planes fly with 60-70 percent of the seating capacity, but this time it was just eight people short of the full capacity.

Kim Myung-soo (32), from China, was reluctant to leave, saying, “I saved money for my marriage by working for a PET maker in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do for seven years. But I’m a little bit sad to leave here.”

As the foreign workers’ departures increase sharply, reservations for plane tickets to China and southeast Asian countries until November 15, the date when the intensified police control on the workers overstaying illegally is scheduled, has already finished.

According to Ministry of Justice, the number of foreign workers leaving voluntarily was 500-700 a day on average since the beginning of this month, but it has now jumped to around 2,000 on November 12, as the deadline approaches.

The number of foreign workers staying illegally who had left Korea by November 13 was 12,713, therefore some 100,000 workers still must leave Korea.